Newsletters: Newsbites

SANS NewsBites is a semiweekly high-level executive summary of the most important news articles that have been published on computer security during the last week. Each news item is very briefly summarized and includes a reference on the web for detailed information, if possible.

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The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is urging Congress to balance pay packages for DHS and Pentagon cyber professionals. DHS says that higher salaries for cyber professionals in that agency would help them attract and retain skilled employees. The change is part of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. Because the passage of major cybersecurity legislation is unlikely until 2013, DHS is exploring other avenues to attract new employees with desirable skills. -http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2012/08/homeland-security-pushes-pay-boost-cyber-pros/57194/?oref=ng-HPtopstory************************** Sponsored Links: **************************** 1) Enter to win one of TWO $200 American Express Cards by taking SANS 2nd Survey on Mobility/BYOD Policy and Management. http://www.sans.org/info/110989 Results released in October. http://www.sans.org/info/110994 2) Special Webcast: Why Sys Admins Are Not Interested in Security. Friday, August 10, 2012 at 1:00 PM EDT - Featuring John Strand. http://www.sans.org/info/110999 3) Special Webcast: Why hypervisor security does not scale into public space, Featuring Chris Brenton. Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 1:00 PM EDT. http://www.sans.org/info/111000 ***************************************************************************

THE REST OF THE WEEK'S NEWS

Bill Seeks to Limit Warrantless Wiretapping in US (August 2, 2012)

US Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) has introduced legislation that would limit the government's warrantless wiretapping powers. The proposal would amend the Terrorist Surveillance Program adopted by the Bush administration following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The program was formally authorized by Congress under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendment Act; it allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on communications of US citizens if it believes the person is receiving communications from a foreign country. Currently, the secret FISA Court is expected to grant all requests. In the rare instance that a request is denied, the government can still gather information during the appeals process. Merkley's proposal would require the government to "immediately stop the information acquisition and [forfeit the use of ] any information collected from Americans ... in legal proceeding" if the secret FISA court rejects a request for eavesdropping. It would also require any data gathered on US citizens be accessed only with a probable-cause warrant. -http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/warrantless-wiretapping-powers/-http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/08/8-2-12-Protect-Americas-Privacy-Act-FINAL.pdf

Dropbox Customer eMail Breach Explained (August 1, 2012)

Dropbox has confirmed a security breach that exposed customer data. Last month, Dropbox users in Europe reported receiving spam email advertising online casinos. The customer data were contained in a document that was stolen from the Dropbox account of one of the company's employees. The intruder managed to gain access to the account because of a different attack on another website; the account holder used the same password for both accounts. Dropbox says it plans to introduce two-factor authentication in the coming weeks, but did not offer any specific information. -http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Dropbox-confirms-data-leak-1657230.html-http://www.scmagazine.com/employee-password-reuse-behind-dropbox-spam-outbreak/article/253004/[Editor's Note (Honan): This Dropbox incident is a good example to CSOs to use password breaches at third party web sites, especially consumer sites, as part of their security awareness program on why you should not reuse passwords across multiple systems, especially on your corporate systems. ]

Former congressional staffer Diane Roark is suing the US government, alleging that her constitutional rights have been violated because it seized her computer five years ago in connection with a whistle-blowing case and has not returned the machine. Roark also alleges that the government is refusing to clear her name. Roark was a senior staffer at the House Intelligence Committee, and as such, was privy to the warrantless wiretapping program the government began after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She says that she urged "everybody ... to put civil liberties protections on it or eliminate it." The feds seized Roark's computer because they believed that she was the person who had leaked information of the program to the New York Times, which broke the story in December 2005. Roark denies that she is responsible for the leak. -http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/diane-roark-story/

Air Force to Open Cyberwarfare Program to Other Agencies, Schools (August 1, 2012)

John Pescatore is Vice President at Gartner Inc.; he has worked in computer and network security since 1978.

Stephen Northcutt founded the GIAC certification and is President of STI, The Premier Skills-Based Cyber Security Graduate School, www.sans.edu.

Dr. Johannes Ullrich is Chief Technology Officer of the Internet Storm Center and Dean of the Faculty of the graduate school at the SANS Technology Institute.

Ed Skoudis is co-founder of CounterHackChallenges, the nation's top producer of cyber ranges, simulations, and competitive challenges, now used from high schools to the Air Force. He is also author and lead instructor of the SANS Hacker Exploits and Incident Handling course, and Penetration Testing course..

William Hugh Murray is an executive consultant and trainer in Information Assurance and Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Rob Lee is the curriculum lead instructor for the SANS Institute's computer forensic courses (computer-forensics.sans.org) and a Director at the incident response company Mandiant.

Tom Liston is a Senior Security Consultant and Malware Analyst for InGuardians, a handler for the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, and co-author of the book Counter Hack Reloaded.

Dr. Eric Cole is an instructor, author and fellow with The SANS Institute. He has written five books, including Insider Threat and he is a founder with Secure Anchor Consulting. Mason Brown is one of a very small number of people in the information security field who have held a top management position in a Fortune 50 company (Alcoa). He is leading SANS' global initiative to improve application security.

David Hoelzer is the director of research & principal examiner for Enclave Forensics and a senior fellow with the SANS Technology Institute.

Alan Paller is director of research at the SANS Institute.

Brian Honan is an independent security consultant based in Dublin, Ireland.

David Turley is SANS infrastructure manager and serves as production manager and final editor on SANS NewsBites.

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